I just wish they'd knock it off with all the big events and just let their creative teams settle in for some good, solid runs without having to worry about tying in to the next big event.
Yep, I have been less than thrilled with the Batman Who Laughs. DC is going to milk this character's popularity for all its worth. I'm still pissed at how the big post Metal storyline destroyed the Titans series.
Ever since Metal (which I did not bother to read) I’ve dropped Justice League, Flash, Titans, refused to pick up titles I might have been interested in before, and watched several titles I bought get cancelled. I’m down to three DC titles (lowest number in nearly a decade—Superman, Action, and LSH). Originally thought Bendis would be a good thing, but I’m nearly ready to throw in the towel on these three (even LSH, and I’m a Legion fan all the way back to the Cockrum days as a kid, and with various collections across all eras). My wallet likes this trend, but I don’t.
I haven't read any comics with him, so I don't have an opinion on him, but I was a little surprised to see how much The Batman Who Laughs seems to have taken over as one of the DCU's core big bads. From what little I know about him, he seems like the kind of character that would be a one off gimicky villain, not a long term one.
Smart move. I pre-ordered the Metal stuff before I knew what it was about, and I really regretted that decision. Absolutely. I like The Batman Who Laughs even less than the event he sprang up from. I'm all for expanding the multiverse beyond the 52 earths, but I am not crazy about how they did it at all, and now we're stuck with this crappy character turning up everywhere. I've never been a Snyder basher, but he makes it hard sometimes. So I finally read Justice League #39 and the end really seemed to heavily hint at the rumoured 5G event DC has brewing, but then issue #40 came along and acted like the last 39 issues never happened. Is the next arc just going to be filler until the big event?
I often wonder if it had been better had they released it more quickly, without the months in-between issues, but then, I haven't felt like re-reading it again to test this theory. I just know that stuff like "No Justice" and "Drowned Earth" have been better reads for me, and it may have been to a huge part due to those being done within a month or two. I also smartened up to a degree, as I didn't bother with the recent "Infected" oneshots at all. It's the old problem of a good writer (or director, as it applies to films, too)becoming so popular they are allowed to do anything without anybody daring to tell them an idea of theirs is shit. Probably. Though I haven't read #39 yet (thanks to a delay in my monthly comics delivery), DC spoiled it themselves by releasing "Hell Arisen" #1 earlier. I imagine Snyder telling Didio that there was no use for the JL title between his run and the Generation Zero event, to which Didio would reply that, of course, JL is the flagship title and had to be continued.
Nope. Not interested. If this makes Superman, Action, and LSH impossible to follow, then I’m out of DC entirely.
I’ve already nearly given up on them. Was really happy to see my favourite title return (LSH) but not thrilled with the way it’s kicked off. Much prefer the last incarnation. Oh well.
This is a huge problem with both DC and Marvel right now. Writers like Snyder, grant Morrison and Johnathon Hickman can basically do whatever they want, even derailing other peoples books on a whim. For DC specifically, I recently had to drop Supergirl right after getting really invested in it, because she got "infected" as part of Scott snyder;s current shit and her entire book was taken over by her becoming a super evil edgelord. As a big Legion fan, I noped right out of Bendis' Legion of Super Millennials almost immediately. I used to be a big fan of Bendis back in his Avengers days, but now I really can't stand his stuff at DC. Oh, fuck that whole thing. Its going to ruin a whole new batch of previously unrelated DC books too, isn't it?
Everything out of this new Dark Night: Death Metal just looks to me like the absolute worst of the '90s "extreme" stuff.
Entertainment Weekly has announced that DC is doing a new Batman: The Animated Series comic miniseries, called Batman: The Adventures Continue, it's been written by Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, with art by Ty Templeton. The miniseries will be introducing new elements into the DCAU universe, including Jason Todd and Azreal, who will also then be included in the B:TAS toy line.
Also, DC announced a series of "Generation" one-shots following the Free Comic Book Day's "Generation Zero" detailing the new timeline. From the article: “The Generation series of specials are built to bring the new DC timeline to life,” DC Publisher Dan DiDio said in a statement. “With Generation One: Age of Mysteries and every subsequent volume we’ll be shining a spotlight on the 80-plus-year publishing history of the DC universe while charting the course for the bright future of DC’s characters. All of our greatest stories and events will create the backdrop and context for the great new adventures we have planned. Everything counts, and we guarantee there’ll be surprises along the way!” "Generation One: Age of Mysteries" will be released at the end of May, followed on a monthly schedule by "Generation Two: Age of the Metahuman", "Generation Three: "Age of Crisis", "Generation Four: Age of Rebirth", and finally, "Generation Five: Age of Tomorrow". I'm skeptical, but open. Cautiously open. If I learned anything from the New 52, it's that I can live without following the DC Universe when it's direction isn't to my liking, so if this whole G5 doesn't surprise me by actually being good, I'm dropping the whole thing and going back to reading collections of the older DC comics that I didn't get around to yet.
I'm so tired of DC reboots. Before I was born, DC had basically one "soft" reboot (the silver age introduction of new versions of old characters) and one "hard" reboot (Crisis on Infinite Earths). Since I've been alive, its had everything from partial reboots/retcons (Zero Hour and Rebirth) to hard reboots of both the entire universe (New 52) and individual books (all the various versions of the legion of Superheroes). Marvel may have its problems, but by using a sliding timescale and just updating origins every so often (like Tony's injury happening later and later) its managed to not be such a clusterfuck of reboot bullshit. I am honestly more of a DC fan when it comes down to the characters, but they make it so hard to follow anything nowadays without the book I'm enjoying getting cancelled or ruined by shitty events every few months. Marvel isn't immune to this at all, but with DC it feels like the status quo is to never have a status quo, and when they do try for a status quo its always edgelord bullshit like the New 52. DC/WB needs to get rid of Dan Didio and Bob Harras, period. Its never going to get out of its rut with those guys running things, its just the same shit over and over with different names.
I think DC needs to really get back to the basics. I would have a multiverse level event. Ultimately, they need to do it with an end goal in mind--which is kind of what Convergence was supposed to do. There are people of all sorts of generations that have read any enjoyed these characters. I would want an event that will straighten it out once and for all. First--I like what Convergence did in thwarting the original COIE, and bringing back the original multiverse in tact. I would roll with that. The idea is that the DC characters we all knew are still around, they are fine, but that ever so often, we will follow a different Earth so that comics can adapt to the changing times. They need to fix the multiverse map. The problem they have done is that they have several different Earth 1s and Earth 2s. So end that. Every Earth gets its pre-Crisis designation. Byrne's Superman/Post Crisis will live on Earth 1985. Every time they change the main Earth Prime, it will be Earth (year we do it). So at the end of this event, and I won't call it a Crisis, we will be following Earth 2020. Our heroes from other Earths will live on with their continuities, and we will check in on them in various adventures with the heroes of Earth 2020 on occasion, maybe once a year. This way, they can reset continuity whenever they want. I would have a list of Earths we know, and never change designation. Earth 2 would still be pre-Crisis Earth 2, with their Kal-L still alive, but there may be an Earth 222, which is exactly the same, but has slight differences as we saw after Infinite Crisis. Ultimately, everyone wins.
This May DC will be releasing Green Lantern: 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 in honor of the anniversary of Alan Scott's first appearance. Along with Scott it will feature appearances by Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, Jessica Cruz, and Simon Baz along with "other cosmic favorites". It will feature contributions by Geoff Johns, Darryl Banks, Charlotte Fullerton McDuffie, Sina Grace, Mike Grell, Jeff Lemire, Ron Marz, Denny O'Neil, Fernando Pasarin, Ivan Reis, Rafa Sandoval, Mariko Tamaki, Peter J. Tomasi, James Tynion IV, Robert Venditti, and more. It's main cover will be by Liam Sharp and it will also feature a series of decade variant covers, with each cover being based on a different decade and drawn by a different artist. 1940s - Liam Sharp 1950s - Matt Taylor 1960s - Doug Mahnke 1970s - Neil Adams 1980s - David Finch 1990s - Philip Tan 2000s - Ivan Reis and Oclair Albert 2010s - Jim Lee and Scott Williams
Here are the May solicits. Some interesting stuff there. What I get anyway through subscriptions: Action, Detective, Superman, Batman, JL, JL Odyssey, JL Dark, Wonder Woman, GL, Batman's Grave, Batman & the Outsiders, Batman/Superman, Event Leviathan: Checkmate, Far Sector (which apparently takes a break in May), LoSH, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Shazam, Supergirl (final issue in May? Oha!), Teen Titans, Terrifics, Wonder Woman, Wonder Twins, and Young Justice. Dead Metal is a hard pass. Man-Bat, not that interested. Pass. Manhunters by Andreyko, might give that a go. Never followed the Manhunters, but the Leviathan stuff was interesting, and Andreyko is a great writer. Might wait for trade, though. Batgirl #47, a tie-in to the Batman arc. Hm. Maybe. Depends on the tally after all the other stuff I want. Might get the Batgirl Adventures collection. Affordable, and I like the smaller format (as close to my beloved pocket book format as we're likely to get nowadays). Generation One, Batman: The Adventures Continue, GL 80th (both 100-page special and Hardcover), Batman Secret Files, Facsimiles of Man-Bat #1 (Ditko art) and WW George Perez #1 (the GL/GA one, I already got in other editions), DC Classics (yet another series of affordable reprints, yay) Batman Adventures #1, are all sure buys. Sidenote, seems like the 'Ric Grayson' era in the Nightwing book is finally coming to an end.